Meet the Orchestra

Thomas Pfotenhauer

Trumpet

Thomas Muehlenbeck-Pfotenhauer is Associate Professor of Trumpet at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he also teaches brass techniques and coaches small ensembles. Dr. Muehlenbeck-Pfotenhauer studied trumpet with Armando Ghitalla at the University of Michigan, completing a masters degree in 1993, and holds a bachelors degree in music from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and a doctorate in trumpet performance from the University of Kansas. While at the University of Kansas, Dr. Muehlenbeck-Pfotenhauer studied with William Campbell and Christopher Moore and was a member of the Kansas Brass Quintet, one of the country’s most active faculty brass quintets. Dr. Muehlenbeck-Pfotenhauer’s performance experience is extensive and varied. He has studied Baroque trumpet with Kris Kwapis and Susan Williams and has performed with professional early music ensembles throughout the US and Canada. From 1994-2002 he performed for numerous touring productions presented at the critically acclaimed Weidner Center for the Performing Arts in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Dr. Muehlenbeck-Pfotenhauer has played lead trumpet and section trumpet in pit orchestras and in back-up bands for such shows as: West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Copacabana, Fiddler on the Roof, Camelot, South Pacific, and Saturday Night Fever; and with artists such as: Robert Goulet, the Manhattan Transfer, Peabo Bryson, Bernadette Peters, Johnny Mathis, and Shirley Jones. In April 2008, he was a featured soloist at the Beijing International Congress on Women in Music and performed a program of works for trumpet written by French female composers. Dr. Muehlenbeck-Pfotenhauer has also performed with numerous professional and regional orchestras and currently plays third trumpet with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra.